Motiejunas remains a restricted free agent. He can sign with the Rockets directly or an offer sheet with another team that Houston can match.

The only difference is that the Rockets are offering less now. They almost certainly haven’t pulled every offer. Even if they couldn’t trade Motiejunas this season, they’d surely love to have him for the minimum. We don’t know the new standing offer, but it’d be illogical for there not to be one.

This was the risk of declining the qualifying offer for Motiejunas. I was surprised Houston still offered $7 million guaranteed, but we don’t know the overall terms of that offer. It could have still been extremely team-friendly (with multiple lower-paying unguaranteed years).

“It’s very frustrating, but I know my team feels like I am, I feel like I am that All-Star-caliber guy,” said Conley, whose Grizzlies on Saturday played the Wolves for the third time already this season. “I just have to keep playing like that and get better as each year goes by.”

I understand Conley’s frustration. It’s easy to examine his career and believe it should have produced at least one All-Star appearance.

But it’s much more difficult to point to a certain year and a specific Western Conference All-Star and say, “Conley deserved it over him.” Absent that, any griping is moot. The Western Conference has produced great guards over his career. That might be frustrating, but that’s reality.